"Fly Little Demon"

Supernatural Cat

Artists:

The bulk of Abisso, the new full-length from Italian caustic space-rock wanderers OvO, is certainly heavier than its longest track, the eight-minute creep of “Fly Little Demon”. Elsewhere, mangled guitar tones come down in brittle sheets, and curdled shrieks go up in snarled bleats. There’s throttling doom metal, menacing noise expanses and even a guest appearance from Alan Dubin, the wicked-voiced boogeyman of Gnaw and Khanate.

Still, without pounding drums and even with the amplifiers turned uncharacteristically down, “Fly Little Demon” is the most daunting track here, a terrifying slither through demonic rites. Carla Bozulich takes the spotlight, with her band Evangelista assisting OvO with swelling drones pinpricked by dissonant shards of guitar and keyboard. Suggesting Emmylou Harris giving into the darkness, Bozulich presides over the slowly gathering din. She contorts her voice into last gasps and chilling howls, a high priestess presiding over this strange record’s least dense but somehow heaviest moment. Abisso is out now on Supernatural Cat.